Here Come The Fare Hikes!

It’s still a bargain compared to London’s UK6 (about US $12) day pass, but the Los Angeles Metro daypass goes up to $5 next week in July. The Timeshas an article on it, which covers a lot of the bare bones. This is the first across the board hike in a decade…and many of the regular riders say they cannot afford it. And the hikes come despite the state Senate’s rejection of Ahnuld’s $1.3B transit cuts. (Did I mention how hypocritical it is for him to talk about the environment while slashing public transit budgets? Rigging a Hummer up to hydrogen is not environmentalism!)

Anyways, if you’re riding mass transit next month, check out the MTA site for fare changes, and carry your $$ accordingly.

This is such bullshit that i had to go out and buy myself a scooter just to get around. i take the bus 5 times a week and i usually get myself a day pass. but not anymore because me spending $100 a month just to ride the shitty public traspo system makes no sense at all.

Now the bus riders union had a great [email protected]#$ing solution to this problem and that’s to lower the prices of the cost to ride which would encourage more people to ride the buses and trains, not the other way around.

LA Scumbag: if you were getting a day pass but riding the bus 5 times a week, you were already making a financial mistake as you could have gotten the Monthly Pass and saved yourself $8 a month. Come July, you’ll only find yourself paying $2 more a month if you get that Monthly Pass, as you were already paying $60 a month before. Maybe you bought that scooter too soon buddy.

David Markland: The monthly pass is not going to be “almost tripling” any time soon or even years from now. Come July a Monthly Pass will cost $62 instead of $52… that’s not triple, or even double. In July of 2009, two years from now, a Monthly pass will cost $75… still not even double. And in July of 20011, a whopping four years from now, the cost of a Monthly Pass will indeed ALMOST have double from it’s current cost, and will be $90. Double the current cost would be $104. Triple would be $156, just for you info. Let’s not all be the BRU and spread ignorant untruths.

Also, the logic behind raising this rates is not “absolutely insane”, in fact, it’s completely logical. Service costs money, the MTA needs money, either raise fares or sacrifice service. It’s economics at it’s most pure.

The Bus Riders Union had a terrible [email protected]#$ing solution to the problem, which was to lower the cost to ride to more than half of it’s current price which would in turn require service to be cut (remember it costs money to operate a transit system) while at the same time overrunning the system with new riders. A lose-lose proposal in every sense of the concept.

That said, I still think its insane to raise prices on a system that is poorly utilized and so very necessary. The city is undervaluing public transportation, especially in the long term as our roads become more and more congested. But raising the fares will deter people from using the system and instead elect to spend the additional cost on cars.